1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a water treatment system, and more particularly, to a water treatment system that combines disinfection gas injection components and flow meter, and that has monitoring functions to precisely monitor the service life of the filter material and to control the ultraviolet lamp.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Water is an indispensable basic element in our daily life, and drinking water is the most important thing that affects human health. With the rapid development in the industry, contamination of water resources caused by environmental pollution is becoming more and more serious day by day. Although tap water, the main source of today""s drinking water, is filtered and sterilized by the water treatment plant, but it is still not able to satisfy people""s need for clean drinking water. Buying water treatment apparatuses for a second-time water treatment or simply buying bottled mineral water in order to obtain drinking water which is clean and not harmful to man""s health has been a measure to meet the above-mentioned demand. Aside from attaining the object of acquiring clean drinking water, the quality of the treated water, the service life of the water treatment apparatus, the convenience of use and maintenance, as well as the cost of water treatment are all important factors that the user should consider.
In respect of the water purifying process, what we need is the filtering of particles and antimicrobial action. The most popular methods of water treatment apparatus in the prior art are ozone and ultraviolet lamp with ionizing radiation. These two agents are used to sterilize or purify the water suitable for people to drink and to purify various effluents of industrial manufacturing process. In addition, they are also used in washing machines, the recirculating water in swimming pools, and in hot tubs. Conventionally, most of the water treatment apparatuses make use of the ultraviolet lamp irradiating to the contaminated water, or let an air stream to be exposed to the radiation from the ultraviolet lamp, thereby creating ozone from the oxygen contained in the air. The ozonated air is then mixed with the contaminated water that is to be purified.
Ozone is mainly generated either by high voltage discharge or by the irradiation with ultraviolet lamp. As for the irradiation with ultraviolet lamp, all the ultraviolet lights generated by the ultraviolet lamp contain wavelength of both 254 nano meters and 185 nano meters. The principle that the ultraviolet light having wavelength of around 185 nano meters and being the main light that generates ozone can be used to disinfect the bacteria in the water.
In respect of the use of ozone, due to the active nature of ozone and the demand amount for its use, it is necessary to generate ozone at or near a reaction chamber so that ozone and the contaminated water can be mixed together. As such, how to provide a simple, low cost, and compact apparatus to generate a relatively big volume of ozone is our goal.
In respect of the cost of water treatment apparatus, our main consideration is the need for periodic replacement of consumption products such as the active carbon filters and xe2x80x9cDisinfecting filtersxe2x80x9d made of the polypropylene. Besides, there is a need for changing old ultraviolet lamps which have weaken strength of filtering quality in order to maintain the quality of the purified water.
In respect of the maintenance and convenience for use of water treatment apparatuses, the service life of the filters used in water treatment apparatuses is based on observation or the past experience of the suppliers in usage, maintenance personnel, or users who periodically change and replace the filters. As for the ultraviolet lamp, most of the conventional water treatment apparatuses, such as fountain machine, the ultraviolet lamp is turned on 24-hours a day whether or not there is anyone using it, thereby, its service life is very limited. As such, if a flow meter can be installed in the water treatment apparatus to measure the total water flow and usage volume, then the data can be used for predicting service life of the filter. In addition, if the ultraviolet lamp can be turned on only when it is in service, then turned off when not in use, its service life would be extended tremendously. Moreover, the water treatment apparatuses commonly seen today use a preset period of time to decide the service life and when to replace the filters. Since the total amount of time in the service life could end at late hours at night ,the noise of the apparatus will disturb people. Currently, there are no alarm sounding devices installed in water treatment apparatuses to remind the user to change and replace the filters.
In respect to the water treatment, related patents such as the U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,748 Szabo et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,915 Radler, U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,629 Boley et al., etc. mention the use of Venturi tube as an apparatus for ozone gas injection. FIG. 6 is a partial diagram of the sterilizing system used in U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,748, Szabo et al.xe2x80x94xe2x80x9cWater Disinfecting Devicexe2x80x9d of the prior art. FIG. 6 shows that the flow meter and ozone gas mixer are used separately. In the mean time, it also indicates the location and requirements of the flow meter. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the main parts in Radler""s U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,915, et al.xe2x80x94xe2x80x9cLaundry Ozone Injection Systemxe2x80x9d. FIG. 7 shows that the flow meter and ozone gas mixer are also used separately. Meanwhile, it also indicates the location and requirements of the flow meter. The biggest drawback of these two related patents is the fact that the flow meter and ozone gas mixer cannot be combined together. Consequently, the user has to use relatively large installation space and high cost in order to attain the same object and function which makes the overall design of the facility even more complex. Furthermore, the reason why many water treatment facilities do not provide flow meters is not because there is no needs for it. Rather, it is due to the high cost of flow meters and the inability to directly apply those functions such as total water volume and the filter""s remaining service life on the water treatment apparatus.
FIG. 5 is a schematic comparison drawing of the differential pressure type of flow meter of the prior art and the differential pressure type of flow meter of the invention. As shown in FIG. 5, Part A, the conventional differential pressure type of flow meters utilizes the pressure difference between the lowest pressure point at the narrow section 503 of the Venturi tube 316 and the water inlet 304 or water outlet 306. This design has a number of drawbacks: 1. If the point at the narrow section 503 is employed as the gas or fluid injection point, then this design is unable to combine the flow meter and the ozone gas injection apparatus together similar to that of the invention; 2. If the back pressure on the water outlet 306 is too large or the water flow is too slow, then the point at the narrow section 503 will become faulty in injecting gas, thereby affecting the measurement of the pressure difference; 3. In order to allow the flow meter to have a sufficient range of measurement for achieving a certain accuracy level, the diameter of the point at the narrow section 503 should be as small as possible. However, this will reduce the volume of water flowing out of the water treatment apparatus. Therefore, how to improve these drawbacks of conventional pressure difference type of flow meter is another target of our improvement to pursuit.
In light of the above-mentioned drawbacks of water treatment apparatuses of the prior art, the invention abandons the conventional flow meter that measures the pressure difference between the main water pipe 302 and the narrow section 503 of the Venturi tube, As shown in Part A of FIG. 5. Instead, As shown in Part B of FIG. 5, a specially designed flow meter is used to measure the pressure difference of the main water pipe""s 302 narrow sections 501, 502 on both ends of the Venturi tube. As shown in FIG. 4, the narrow section 503 of the Venturi tube is used as an apparatus to inject fluids or gas. In the mean time, the pressure difference measured by this specially designed flow meter 402 is converted into flow rate and accumulated water flow. This design helps simplify the measuring of flow rate as well as the injection of fluids or gas. By using the water treatment apparatus of the invention, the user can reduce the waste of space needed for using the Venturi tube and flow meter to lower the cost. In addition, by employing the same principle of pressure difference to measure the flow rate and Venturi tubes to absorb ozone gas, the invention can avoid the system requiring two narrow sections for two Venturi tubes, which creates the trouble of reducing the water flow rate.
Therefore, in order to compensate the above-mentioned imperfection, of the prior art, one of the object of the invention is to provide a new type of flow meter for measuring the pressure difference at both ends of the Venturi tube.
It is another object of the invention to provide a water treatment system combining a monitoring apparatus having the above-mentioned new type of flow meter and an ozone gas injection apparatus.
It is a further object of the invention to provide various apparatuses in a water treatment system that combines ozone gas injection apparatus and monitoring apparatus. These apparatuses including a flow meter, a flow speed meter, and an ultraviolet lamp switch monitoring system derived from the flow speed meter can be used separately and independently.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a water treatment system combining ozone gas injection apparatus and monitoring apparatus in which a pressure sensor in the monitoring apparatus is made of a silicon chip. A side of the chip is in direct contact with the water from the main pipe, while the other side is covered with a layer of silicon gel after being connected to a wire bonding. The layer of silicon gel is then in direct contact with the fluid.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a flow meter for measuring flow speed and total flow amount in order to calculate the service life of the filter. Based on this, the flow meter installs a buzzer that will give an alarm sound once the flow meter reaches its preset accumulated total amount of water flow, signaling that the filter has reached its expected service life and reminding the user to change a new filter.